One thing we learn in our Content Strategy course is that if we don’t have a plan, we won’t be able to achieve our goals and objectives. When it comes to social storytelling the same principles apply.
In the interview, Brooke Ihnat, Social Media Lead at American Express, explained the importance of their social media strategy. According to Brooke, if you don’t have a strategy, social media becomes the dumping ground for everybody’s’ content. Ms. Ihnat and her team at American Express developed a strategy for ensuring social media communications are targeting the right audience with the right message on the right platform, and all this is based on the performance metrics and analytics provided by the social media platforms.
According to the Harvard Business Review article Research: The Emotions that Make Marketing Campaigns Go Viral by Kelsey Libert and Kristin Tynski, marketing is moving away from a mass media approach to a more targeted approach. Social media allows marketers to have that kind of focus, where for example, American Express connects with the audience who wants to know about the new products coming on Twitter, and the audience who is interested in lifestyle on Instagram. Each media platform enables social media marketers to connect with the right audience for that message, and as Brooke Ihnat reminds us it’s also about timing and pushing relevant content.
By combining organic and paid, organizations can achieve their content strategy’s desired outcome, and the tools on the platforms can help. Brooke gave an example where Instagram recommended boosting content based on the response specific posts were getting from their audience. A boosted post is paid social media where a brand pays to show a post to an audience that isn’t already following the brand.
When looking at your social media strategy, make sure you are curating content that is appropriate for the platform. Take advantage of the analytics provided by the platforms, and combine paid, organic and even community generated content to achieve your social media objectives. “Lean-in” like Brooke and team at American Express to attract followers, drive traffic, generate leads, and increase sales.